Streaming data with Python and Flask

To replace existing content on the page you might need javascript i.e., you could send it or make it to make requests for you, use long polling, websockets, etc. There are many ways to do it, here's one that uses server send events:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import itertools
import time
from flask import Flask, Response, redirect, request, url_for

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    if request.headers.get('accept') == 'text/event-stream':
        def events():
            for i, c in enumerate(itertools.cycle('\|/-')):
                yield "data: %s %d\n\n" % (c, i)
                time.sleep(.1)  # an artificial delay
        return Response(events(), content_type='text/event-stream')
    return redirect(url_for('static', filename='index.html'))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(host='localhost', port=23423)

Where static/index.html:

<!doctype html>
<title>Server Send Events Demo</title>
<style>
  #data {
    text-align: center;
  }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<script>
if (!!window.EventSource) {
  var source = new EventSource('/');
  source.onmessage = function(e) {
    $("#data").text(e.data);
  }
}
</script>
<div id="data">nothing received yet</div>

The browser reconnects by default in 3 seconds if the connection is lost. if there is nothing more to send the server could return 404 or just send some other than 'text/event-stream' content type in response to the next request. To stop on the client side even if the server has more data you could call source.close().

Note: if the stream is not meant to be infinite then use other techniques (not SSE) e.g., send javascript snippets to replace the text (infinite <iframe> technique):

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time
from flask import Flask, Response

app = Flask(__name__)


@app.route('/')
def index():
    def g():
        yield """<!doctype html>
<title>Send javascript snippets demo</title>
<style>
  #data {
    text-align: center;
  }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<div id="data">nothing received yet</div>
"""

        for i, c in enumerate("hello"):
            yield """
<script>
  $("#data").text("{i} {c}")
</script>
""".format(i=i, c=c)
            time.sleep(1)  # an artificial delay
    return Response(g())


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(host='localhost', port=23423)

I've inlined the html here to show that there is nothing more to it (no magic). Here's the same as above but using templates:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time
from flask import Flask, Response

app = Flask(__name__)


def stream_template(template_name, **context):
    # http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/patterns/streaming/#streaming-from-templates
    app.update_template_context(context)
    t = app.jinja_env.get_template(template_name)
    rv = t.stream(context)
    # uncomment if you don't need immediate reaction
    ##rv.enable_buffering(5)
    return rv


@app.route('/')
def index():
    def g():
        for i, c in enumerate("hello"*10):
            time.sleep(.1)  # an artificial delay
            yield i, c
    return Response(stream_template('index.html', data=g()))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(host='localhost', port=23423)

Where templates/index.html:

<!doctype html>
<title>Send javascript with template demo</title>
<style>
  #data {
    text-align: center;
  }
</style>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
<div id="data">nothing received yet</div>
{% for i, c in data: %}
<script>
  $("#data").text("{{ i }} {{ c }}")
</script>
{% endfor %}

I think if you're going to use templates like that, you might need to use the stream_template function given here: http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/patterns/streaming/#streaming-from-templates

I didn't test this, but it might look like:

def stream_template(template_name, **context):
    app.update_template_context(context)
    t = app.jinja_env.get_template(template_name)
    rv = t.stream(context)
    rv.enable_buffering(5)
    return rv

@app.route('/scans/')
def scans_query():
    url_for('static', filename='.*')
    def generate():
        for i in xrange(50):
            sleep(.5)
            yield i
    return Response(stream_template('scans.html', i=generate()))

Streaming data with Python and Flask

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